Fed has been very involved with the negotiations to raise the pay of the low-ranked players. He's done some negotiating with the slams together w/ the other top 4, and other stuff more with the council. There was a newspaper article about "Fed the power broker" which was posted here which detailed the massive number of hours he put into such negotiations during the recent Shanghai Masters.

What is also true is that Fed was taken aback when the issue first arose, as it seemed to come out of nowhere. And he didn't like the talk/threats of boycott as he was worried that could damage the game. If some players want to take offense at his initial reaction, fair enough. But he's been re-elected to the Council since then and has been working hard on the issue.

As for Fed being "distant", he's never had many close friends on tour but he's always been known as friendly in a general way, and very welcoming to new young players. Andy Murray said in his first year on tour Fed was the only guy who bothered to say "hi" to him and make him feel like he was included and part of the group, so to speak. Even Vince Spadea in his book who was nasty about almost anyone had nothing bad to say about Fed who always bothered to say "hi" to him in the hall. See the recent Tsonga quote on Fed, etc etc.

So Fed was taken aback when the pay issue arose, because it came out of nowhere? So was he thinking that things were just fine and dandy, even though he is the player council president. It has always surprised me that he did not see the unfairness of it all much earlier, he has been the president for such a long time now and the oldest and supposedly wisest among the top 4.
Props to him for currently working on it though.